Mavericks plagued by another slow start in game five

The Dallas Mavericks trailed by 31 points in the second quarter of their game four contest with the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday at home. It looked like the Mavericks were dead in the water, but they found a way to erase the deficit and actually take a lead late in the fourth quarter. The comeback was extremely impressive, but they couldn’t actually hold on to get the win. The Clippers won, 116-111, and the series is now even at two.

In game one, the Mavericks also got out to a slow start and lost. They were down by nearly 30 in the first half of that game. It is almost impossible to get wins when you get off to a start like that, and head coach Jason Kidd knows that.

“This is like Game 1,” Jason Kidd said, according to an article from ESPN. “Early game, for whatever reason we just haven’t played well. We’ve gotten off to slow starts. That’s just something that we’ve got to talk about as a team. If there’s another afternoon game, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to go from the jump and we can’t wait.”

Kyrie Irving knows that the team has to be better in the early stages of games, too. It’s too difficult to play from behind, and the Mavericks can’t afford to let it happen again.

“We dug ourselves in a hole,” Kyrie Irving said. “There’s no time to complain about it or look to each other for any excuses. It was just time to get it going. Fell short, but this is a consistent thing in this series so far where Kawhi doesn’t play and we’re just dealing with a barrage of James Harden and Paul George getting off.”

The series is now shifting back to Los Angeles and game five will take place on Wednesday night.

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